Book excerpt: Clouds are being positioned as the next-generation consolidated, centralized, yet federated IT infrastructure for hosting all kinds of IT platforms and for deploying, maintaining, and managing a wider variety of personal, as well as professional applications and services. Handbook of Research on Cloud Infrastructures for Big Data Analytics focuses exclusively on the topic of cloud-sponsored big data analytics for creating flexible and futuristic organizations. This book helps researchers and practitioners, as well as business entrepreneurs, to make informed decisions and consider appropriate action to simplify and streamline the arduous journey towards smarter enterprises.